Sensing Heat, Finding Cool: The Search for Water in Summertime Paris, New York, and London, 1880–1930

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century, Paris, New York, and London were epicenters of urban modernity, but these cities and their inhabitants were ill-equipped to cope with summer heat. Urbanites experienced thermal discomfort directly through their personal sensory registers, and the search for cooling water was a major, although overlooked, aspect of collective urban life in summer. Drawing on sensory and environmental history, and on the archives of city authorities and popular depictions of social life, we find that obtaining watery relief from the heat was limited by inequitable access to cooling infrastructures, including municipal and philanthropic baths and pools, which were often insufficient to meet urbanites’ needs. Instead, Parisians, New Yorkers, and Londoners turned to informal and often illicit methods to overcome the thermal inequalities that were baked into the brick and stone of their cities. Keeping cool in the melting metropolis was a challenge that demanded resourcefulness, bravery, and a willingness to disregard the rules and social norms that tried to regulate the use of other watery infrastructures, including ponds, fountains, hydrants, rivers, and canals. As present-day city authorities develop local adaptation plans in response to the global climate crisis, the fact that the coolness of water did not come easily or equally to turn-of-the-century urbanites should be at the forefront of our minds.